Meet the Contractor 2

MEET THE CONTRACTOR

There are so many people on site at Blackheath Halls at the moment and our contractors Sykes, employ people with a wealth of experience amongst them. That being the case, we thought it would be interesting to find out a little more about the team transforming our venue here we interview Paul, the Senior Site Manager!

1. What is your role on site at Blackheath Halls? I am the site manager and deal with the day to day running of the site.

2. What is the most memorable project that you've worked on during your time at Sykes? Before coming to Blackheath I worked at the V&A on a contract in one of the Cast Courts where we removed the old roof and replaced it with a new modern one. We also redecorated the entire Cast Court which included gold leaf and specialist decorative finishes. The scaffold was about 25 metres in height consisting of 10 levels and this was all built around the objects on display, which also gave the museum conservation team full access to carry out conservation works at the same time. The scaffold was the amazing part of the contract and became a piece of art in itself. In all it took 52 weeks to complete of which it took 26 weeks to erect and dismantle the scaffolding. The objects on display are all replicas of original places around the world and they are all cast which meant they were very easily damaged if hit by the scaffold. Luckily we had only one small mishap which was quickly re-instated by the V&A conservation team.

3. Where is your favourite place to go in the village when you're not busy on site? I rarely leave site as I am so busy. If I do I normally just have a walk around the village to give myself a break from site.

4. What musician would you like to see on the stage of the Great Hall when it reopens and why? I went to see a singer called Melody Gardot at the Barbican years ago and she was amazing, she would be a good act to have here. 5. If you could name a seat in Blackheath Halls after anyone, who would it be and why? Probably my mum as she has done wonders bringing me up and at 80 years old still does. If you want someone famous I would say George Michael as he is one of my favourite artists and without shouting about it as we found out after his death, donated so much money to charity.